Review: Something Blue by Charlotte Armstrong

Something Blue

by Charlotte Armstrong

Publisher: Open Road

Pages: 159

Format: eARC

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  Johnny Simms, a young biology student from Columbia University, has just arrived in San Francisco for a wedding. The lucky bride-to-be is a childhood friend: twenty-year-old Nan Padgett. But the shy, unsure girl he used to know has suddenly blossomed into a radiant, confident, and ecstatically happy young woman. And why wouldn’t she? Richardson Bartee, a handsome vintner from Southern California, swept her off her feet during a whirlwind courtship. Then comes the call from Nan’s aunt Emily, her beloved childhood guardian, with a stinging warning: “You must not marry this man.”
 
Johnny fears that Emily is not just being overprotective. And when Aunt Emily suddenly dies under mysterious circumstances, Johnny begins an investigation into the past that draws him into the nightmare of the Padgett family tree—one so tangled with murder, lies, greed, and deception, it has kept Nan in the dark for twenty years, and so dangerous, it has yet to claim its last victim.


Kritters Thoughts:  I didn't know until after finishing reading this book, that it was repackaged and rereleased and was originally published in 1959.  I think my entire reading experience would have been different had I known, not sure if I would have liked it anymore.

Johnny Simms has been a friend of Nan Padgett almost their entire lives and quite possibly in love with her also.  When all of the sudden she is engaged to be married and her aunt detests the suitor and flies home from Paris to hopefully stop the wedding.  Johnny is bound and determined to help her aunt stop the wedding and he must solve a murder mystery to do so. 

Although not a long book, it took forever for the real drama to pick up and I felt as though all of the action took place in the last few pages and I was wishing for more buildup throughout the book.  I haven't read many classic murder mysteries and not sure after this one, I will seek any out.


Rating: not such a good idea

Ebook 2019 Challenge: 35 out of 100

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Netgalley.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.